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- The Quiz!
- We talk a little, a lot, passionately!
Avenue of XVe Body... walking in the Camargue... Transhumance... The sarcophagi of Mazan...… The Medieval... 78 years ago... In Saint-Pierre... - Vagabondages...
- June "Aperitif"...
- Passadoc library.
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Claude Boyer
Avenue of XVe Body
The cities of Fréjus, Toulon, Nice, Saint-Raphaël to name but a few, have an avenue of XVe Body...
But what is this regiment? Why did he rather than someone else give his name to so many avenues?
Click ! The rest of this page...
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André and François Abbe
Walk in Camargue
Photo André Abbe
40 years ago, at Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer...
A guardian boy, a Arlesian girl, both on a Camargue horse.
What happened to those kids who would probably be happy to see each other again?
Patricia Jouve
The Camargue for me are bike rides in the spring or autumn, on the paths between the ponds... discovery of nature, birds, encounter of horses, sometimes bulls... far from the hustle and bustle and the world that we find in very touristic places like Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer or Aigues-Mortes.
From the Rhône Canal in Sète, between Carnon and Aigues-Morte.
Photo Danièle Duarig
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What happened to these children?
asks François
Jeanne Monin
He remained in the Camargue and became a manadier. With a few others in the country, he watches over his herd of 150 bulls. Manade is his life, his passion.
A passion he tells summer visitors when he takes them hiking for a day. Oh, that's not what he likes best, but it makes a little money to buy winter fodder.
He, what he likes, is the small lonely, morning walk, which he sometimes offers in October or November, all mist.
– I'll wake the sun...
She, she hesitated... for a long time... it's so beautiful this country in Camargue... But her love for literature, for books, was the strongest: she chose the city and worked, happy, in a publishing house, up in the north... in Avignon.
[But all this is pure fiction!]
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Transhumance …
Photo André Abbe – André has been following transhumance shepherds many times since the 1970s.
Some have become friends.
Everything is quiet on the big road that leads to pasture... air is so quiet that we hear bees buzzing in the warm June sun... And here we see there, far away, far away, like a bearing, a trampling that comes close, that flows like a wave... the whole road is now occupied by more than a hundred sheep on which three or four dogs watch.
A man precedes the beasts... Face wrinkled, tanned by the winds, "big bones, without big flesh, without anything but a dry skin cooked on cooked muscles, a hill man, made of sun, dust and dead leaves*, » He's moving slowly.
Hats with broad edges – were they gray... were they black... we don't know anymore... today, they are earth-coloured – two solid shepherds close the walk and beware that no sheep are stagnant.
The flock is moving away... silence is taking over space... transhumance has begun.
[*J. Giono – The Star Snake]
Text Jeanne Monin.
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Giselle Penat-Lorde
The sarcophagi of Mazan – Vaucluse
... it is admitted that they were along the Roman way of Mercadier Road (i.e. merchants) [...] Although there is nothing to support it, this hypothesis is interesting because, as we know, in Roman times, it was customary to be buried along the most frequented routes.
[…] the possibility that they come from several sites cannot be definitively ruled out. In any event, the sarcophagi were already on the hill of the cemetery in 1740: they were mentioned for the first time on that date in a deliberation by the municipal council which endorsed the decision to keep them there. In 1842 there were 144 sarcophagus. It remains today that 64: 62 were aligned in 1858 on the fence wall that it had just been built, as is now seen; two others were laid on both sides of the west entrance.
Text Passion Provence
Click! All about this article is on this page.
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Marie-Odile Beraud
The Ammonite slab
(or more commonly « Ammonite slab ») of Digne-les-Bains (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence). It is a remarkable natural site consisting of a rocky stratum containing a very large number of fossilized ammoniaites. It is located about 1.5 km north of the city of Digne on the road to Barles. It is part of the Haute-Provence Geological Nature Reserve.
This slab, inclined to 60°, is composed of grey limestone. It has about 1,500 ammonites of which 90% are of the species Coroniceras multicostatum dating from the Sinemurian (lower Jurassic). These ammonites can reach a diameter of 70 cm.
Nautiles, belemnites, pectens and other bivalves can also be seen.
The deposit thickness is estimated to be 20 cm, set up over a period of approximately 100,000 years.
Internet Text – Photos M.-O. Beraud.
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Medieval in Roquebrune-sur-Argens...
The medieval... People passionate about their « handicrafts », their « costumes », their clothing « combat » .... We listen to them tell us their passion and they take us into their « world ». Thanks to them for sharing all this.
I've learned about the different costumes, about the functions of each element of an outfit « combatant », on the various craftsmen and their way of work.
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Philippe Natalini
78 years ago…
... All over France, the announcement of the allied landing in Normandy triggers multiple actions of the Resistance and the guerrillas.
This is also the case in Aups (Var) since on June 07, 1944, the FTP of Camp Robert invest the village and arrest five « Staff ». With the help of the village resistors, they even manage to block the small column sent by Feldkommandantur, in order to realize the situation. Composed of some 20 Germans, soldiers and police officers of the SD, and fifteen French gendarmes, the latter arrives at about 8 p.m. at the entrance to the Aups.
The Germans wiped out a few machine guns and threw grenades, and counted two dead and three wounded in their ranks. They leave without trying to penetrate the village by force, but taking with them two hostages. It should be noted that an isolated German motorcyclist gendarmerie was shot dead in front of the local gendarmerie.
It was also that day that several gendarmes of the Salernes and Aups Brigades, including gendarmes François Duchâtel, Florentin and Bouet, took the maquis with them taking their weapons.
Aups became the target of German retaliatory expeditions.
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In Saint-Pierre...
Saint-Pierre is a small village in the Basses-Alpes on the edge of the Alpes-Maritimes, south of Puget-Théniers. On 3 June 1944, he was occupied by a detachment of 5e F.T.P. Company (Francs Shooters Partisans) of the department commanded by a young officer of the ex-Armistice army passed to the maquis, Captain Henri Hutinet, nicknamed « Jean-Louis Voray « .
While the cooperative trustee is being asked to provide supplies, two militiamen are arrested, tried and sentenced to death by the guerrillas. In the afternoon, people gathered in the square to be informed of the decisions taken. At 7.30 p.m., the two militiamen were executed.
At about 9 p.m., the guerrillas left the commune in two requisitioned buses towards Montblanc and Rouaine. It is then that « Jean-Louis » receives very important information from the F.T.P. subsector:
Digne's gestapo will travel to Nice on 6 June by road. Order is given to attack the cars of this German convoy.
« Jean-Louis » develop its action plan and choose the place of the ambush. This will be the highest point of the All-Other Pass at 1120m altitude, between Vergons and Rouaine.
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And what « Apero »Hey!
Thanks to Valerian and his remarkable wine research, we have opened many bottles of good wines from home, California, South Africa... We had a drink with Napoleon, Chirac and Mandela... Yes, yes! We even saw an African phacochère!
And then we left ourselves promising to come as often as possible to every « Apéro Passadoc ».
*Amarine: Willow whose branches are used in basketry.
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Maryse Laugier
Mons... a pretty little village
Mons, with Gourdon, one of the most beautiful views to the sea,
says Claude Boyer whileAlain Cathala adds:
At Gourdon, we hear the cry of eagles, the song of streams and the song of waterfalls..
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Philippe Levieux
Sea Alpes marmots
... between Beuil and Valberg
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Marie-Odile Beraud
Annotation... Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
Washing it
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The Murres in Forcalquier.
An exceptional geological site, magical and strange
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Alain Cathala
In the Camargue...
[Photo by Andy Booth]
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